As our routine procedure, all patients signed an informed consent to approve diagnostic testing, treatment decision, methods for follow-up and data treatment for scientific purposes. This study has been conducted in accordance with the Helsinki II Declaration on human experimentation. This study takes advantage from data collected in a large, prospective study to investigate the effect of first-line surgery or medical therapy (with somatostatin analogues and/or dopamine/agonists) on GH, IGF-I, tumor mass, cardiovascular risk markers, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, metabolic profile and prostate diseases in all the patients coming for a diagnosis of acromegaly in our Department and approved by our Ethical Committee the 14/10/97 (no.60/97).